


Sea songs

by kittylovesbambi



Series: Fairytales [1]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: M/M, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:47:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittylovesbambi/pseuds/kittylovesbambi
Summary: Little Mermaid AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kaara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaara/gifts).



> Originally a twitfic for kaara because she asked for a fairytale AU, but it became slightly monstrous in length and a few people asked for a continuation, so I thought I might as well feed my fairytale loving heart as well.  
> You may want to read the twitfic to gain some background: https://twitter.com/poopytubby/status/1005115022408740865

Yunho has always been a little too curious and friendly for his own good, or so his family and friends claim. But Yunho is just being optimistic, he likes believing in the good in people, and he likes making new friends. So even though his father explicitly told him to stay away from humans, his favourite hangout is at the surface slightly offshore, where he can observe what the humans are doing without risking being spotted.

Contrary to the horrid tales that he and all his people have been fed with since young, he found out that humans are not as terrible as they are said to be.

Whenever he asks his treasure chest of stories, a little something he owned since he was a mere merbaby, for a tale on humans, it releases bubbles containing images of humans wielding terrible weapons like harpoons and nets accompanied by flashing red lights in place of the usual calm blue, the warning of danger and spilled blood. So when he first came up to the surface, a dare by one of his friends, he was scared completely shitless despite the brave front he had put up. With his fists clenched tight and his heart hitting his ribs so hard he thought they might actually fall out, he swam up, stopped short of touching the surface and peeks at the humans that were near the shore.

So that is how legs look like, he thinks, curiosity piqued. He couldn’t imagine his tail being split into two and moving independently of each other, and he didn’t really want to anymore because the image turned out to be pretty gruesome.

But to be able to walk and swim, to be able to conquer both land and water, that sounded magical.

Intrigued, he took a deep breath and allowed the crown of his head to break the surface of the water.

That was the first time he felt wind. And it was love at first touch. Air, and air _moving_ , Yunho never imagined something that sounded so mundane could actually feel so gentle, so free, so exciting. It made his heart fill with something like ecstasy and revelation, and he knew he wanted more.

It made him greedy.

With a swish of his tail, he pushed his eyes above the water surface as well and took a moment to enjoy the gentle breeze against his forehead. He then looked ahead, and his attention immediately shifted again.

Walking, running, jumping, skipping – there were so many things those legs allowed humans to do, it gave them weightlessness and freedom. And Yunho felt an ugly feeling rise in his chest.

He felt jealousy.

At the far end of the beach, a loose circle of people gathered around two men, seemingly creating a spectacle. The music is loud and the beats booming, and the men hit the beats with head-on with strong, jerky motions, with fluid ones in between, moving in sync with each other and as one with the music, adding a whole new exciting layer of dynamism to the presentation of the music.

“They look amazing,” Yunho breathes out, feeling thoroughly impressed, and definitely enlightened.

It was the deal breaker. He really, _really_ wanted.

Suddenly, he felt a pincer grab the strands of hair near the top of his neck and tugging his head downwards back into the water.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Heechul screamed. “Are you trying to get killed?”

Yunho immediately cowered because, even though Heechul is a small little lobster, who was small even for a lobster, he had the sharpest pincers and the fieriest temper that sometimes make Yunho wonder if it’s possible that he can somehow get cooked simply by getting too angry.

Just as that thought surfaced in Yunho’s mind, Heechul he gets even angrier and clips Yunho by the ear and pulls him all the way back down to the bottom of the ocean. In between the pain and struggle, Yunho wonders if Heechul was somehow able to see his mind picturing a cooked lobster.

Heechul tugs at his ear even harder.

By the time they reached the seabed, Yunho was pretty sure his ear dropped off somewhere along the way because the journey started off with searing pain but now he couldn’t even feel his ears anymore.

The long trip down while violently lugging a huge merman behind him obviously took a toll on Heechul too, because he crashed right into the rocks and stayed there for about five minutes unmoving, and the only sign that he was still alive was the violent rise and fall of his gills.

Once Heechul got his breath back, Heechul continues his screaming tirade about stupid mermen almost becoming fishtail skewers and by this time Yunho was sure his ears were still intact because he could feel them going deaf.

Yunho gave his best pout because he knew it had an effect on Heechul as it does on anyone, despite Heechul’s claims of “stop pouting you big baby it’s not going to work this time”.

If Heechul was calling him a big baby, he was nearly there.

So Yunho lay flat on his tummy and met Heechul at eye-level, the way Heechul liked it when they talked, and added a tasteful little whine to his apology.

Immediately, the tension in the surrounding waters dissipate.

Yunho broke into his signature smile, the one that almost guaranteed cooing from anyone who saw it and cuddled the lobster close to his face.

“But you know, hyung,” Yunho continues, evidently unrepentant and taking advantage of Heechul’s weakened state after the back-to-back attacks. “Don’t you think it will be amazing to have legs?”

* * *

 

When Yunho overheard that a prince was going to build a veela at his favourite part of the beach, he panicked and quickly swam to Heechul and started blabbering incoherently about princes and magical seductive ladies who can swim because “LEGS” and “do you think they saw me and are trying to lure me out with sexy women”.

But thankfully Heechul has known Yunho since he was a mere little egglet so he easily pieces the information together and thwacks him hard on the head to make him “shut up” because “a villa is just a house you idiot”.

Much to Heechul’s dismay, Yunho just gets more excited at the prospect of seeing a member of the “royal land family” and wonders if he has special legs like how their king’s family have luminescent scales while the rest of them do not.

When Heechul gave up on hoping that the blabbering would end soon, he simply sighs and settles down to listen. He might as well be comfortable because he knew he was going to be there for hours.

Since the day Yunho had first taken a forbidden interest in humanity and started taking almost daily trips to the surface to observe them, Heechul has agreed, albeit reluctantly, to be his secret keeper and confidante. At first, he was as sceptical as any other marine dweller would be about the supposed “good” that Yunho saw in humans. But after years of listening to Yunho recounting his almost daily trip to the surface, even Heechul had to admit that he got _a little_ curious and went as far as accompanying Yunho on a few times on his trips to see the humans himself.

So yes, the Heechul today would somewhat entertain the possibility of humans being _good,_ but he still doesn’t condone Yunho’s borderline obsession with humans.

He even taught himself that “popping” thing he saw, for goodness sake. Though a little part of Heechul was proud that his friend mastered that human shenanigan all by himself. But Yunho doesn’t need to know that.

“Please don’t tell me you’re intending to befriend this prince,” Heechul asked, despite already knowing the answer.

“But the royal land family should already know about us right? Since they are the ones protecting us?” Yunho countered, pouting a little. He has been wanting to interact personally with one of the humans for the longest time, and he simply couldn’t not pass up an opportunity as good as this one.

The King of the humans’ royal family has always been in direct contact with their King for centuries, as the merpeople have been protecting the seas from both human and magical threats, and the royal family in turn ensures that the secret of their existence is kept from the rest of humanity, least should it attract the attention of bounty hunters or other potential enemies.

“Only their King protects us, what do we know about the rest of his family?” Heechul tries to reason, frustrated. “Look Yunho, promise me that you won’t go and make friends with him or whatever. You don’t know what these people can be like. No, not just because he’s human,” Heechul added quickly when he saw Yunho all ready to interrupt with his “humans are good creatures” lecture sitting ready at the tip of his tongue. “It’s just creatures with power in general. Power can make really screw someone up, make them greedy and vicious and scheming. I just, I can’t let something happen to you again.”

Yunho frowns, he wishes Heechul would stop blaming himself about that incident. It was his own fault really, he shouldn’t have ignored the signs when he was with the sea witch.

A few weeks after he first went to the surface, he searched for magic that could turn him into a human temporarily, just to fulfil his own curiosity. His research led him to Julia, or so she called herself, whom he merrily made friends with. She claimed that she had a magic stone that could grant wishes, and he naively bought the lie.

He had sensed something amiss, that Julia was a little too ugly to be a normal mermaid, but he immediately berated himself for being so judgemental. So he brushed it off, just as he did with Heechul’s advice. He was too eager and too impatient.

Yunho went to sleep in her cave as she asked, thinking he would wake up as a human on the beach.

But he woke up screaming, his arms and tail tied down while the witch ripped the multicoloured scales off his tail.

Yunho’s beautiful scales were known throughout the kingdom. Though they weren’t luminescent, they bore the colours of the rainbow, a sight that was unseen and only heard of before Yunho and his sister came along.

It was fortunate that Heechul tailed Yunho that day, noticing that he was behaving more excitedly than usual that morning, and became so furious he almost clipped the witch’s boil-ridden nose off her ugly face.

“How dare he have such beauty!” She screamed indignantly as she was dragged away by the authorities, voice echoing throughout the cave. “When I was born with a face like this!”

Yunho remembers drifting in and out of consciousness due to blood loss, spotting the lobster by side, staring at the shallow rise and fall of his chest and the blood painted scales, anguish and guilt painfully obvious in his expression.

“Ok hyung,” Yunho starts, he hates letting anyone down, let alone his closest friend. “I promise.”


	2. Chapter 2

Yunho never breaks his promises.

But he may be regretting it a little.

The villa is being built at the most secluded part of the beach, which is his part of the beach. He often went up there during sunset to enjoy the view and to practice his popping because dancing is much easier in air than water, viscosity and all.

So in addition to not being able to make friends with an actual human, he’s going to be missing out a whole lot of practice time.

He’s a little sad, but he tampers it down quick, because there isn’t any time for regret. So he takes a deep breath, and solidifies his determination.

The next few mornings, he awakes with a groan and mournfully bids farewell to his bed at ungodly hours and at night he awkwardly excuses himself from hanging out with his friends, almost caving in to peer pressure when they tried to entice him with their deep-sea version of bowling – or knocking over dead corals with dumbo octopi.

With the extra time earned with his various commitments sacrifice, he goes up to the beach before the construction workers arrive and after they leave, and dances the hardest he can to make up for all the practice time that will be lost in the future. He does so all the way till the morning after the villa was finally built, unfurnished and still full of construction dust. He was sure the prince was at least going to send servants to clean the house before moving in.

Yunho wonders if he is cursed, because how can he possibly be wrong so often.

That morning, Yunho swims up to the beach and takes out Ho Soonie (his trusty radio) from inside a sand dune, one of the many souvenirs he picked up from the beach that were left behind by humans, and blasted the music like he usually did and danced like a monster, his tail splashing hard against the water to the beat of the music.

From inside the house, comes a whole lot of shuffling, a curse, and footsteps.

But Yunho doesn’t hear anything over the loud music.

It was thus sheer luck that Heechul decided to accompany Yunho to practice that morning after their astoundingly short argument on whether or not it was safe to go up after the construction was done.

Because no one really has the energy to try to win Yunho in an argument. So Heechul decided to just shut his mouth and follow him up instead.

Without hesitation, Heechul pinches Yunho by the tail and drags him down into the water, ignoring his confused protests. The lobster lets him go when he deems the distance from the shore is safe enough and hits him with a claw to stop him from ranting and to direct his attention back to the beach, where Ho Soonie was still blaring away. 

Sure enough, an angry looking human stomps out, in an attire that was significantly less threatening than the look on his face-

“His shoes look so soft, hyung!”

“Focus!”

Yunho tries, he really does, but he but fails miserably because this human’s legs are the longest he has ever seen and oh, he must be the prince then. He makes a mental note to write down in his diary later that the royal land family indeed had different lower bodies from other common humans just like his people.

His ogling was cut short with Heechul mumbling something about angry princes and an endangered Ho Soonie so Yunho forces his eyes to continue its journey upwards.

He mentally thanks Poseidon that the journey ends with the prince’s face because he doesn’t think he can move on from something _that_ beautiful.

Large, pouty lips, the sharpest cheekbones, and oh god his eyes, they were the biggest and most innocent things, and they kind of make Yunho want to sin. He doesn’t know how long he has been staring or how he looked when he was staring but evidently, Heechul was so thoroughly disturbed by the expression on his face that he decided to hit him again.

“Cut that out and stop drooling. God, I could almost see what you wanted to do with him, what happened to my pure innocent Yunho?”

Yunho has the decency to look a little sheepish before Heechul continues, “Why am I always saddled with the responsibility of saving your dumb ass? Will you please at least try to be more careful, for God’s sake.”

Yunho presses his lips together and looks down, assumes the universal pose of meekness and repentance.

Because his tail still stings and he can feel the ghost of the pain in his ears from the previous time the lobster pinched him.

“Now if you would excuse me,” Heechul turns to leave, satisfied. “I wish to go and bleach my eyeballs.”

After Heechul leaves and Yunho looks back at the beach, the prince is gone. He doesn’t know why he feels a little disappointed.

* * *

“If I go at night,” Yunho reasons with himself, “He won’t be able to see me even if I was right in front of him.”

Since the previous morning, Yunho couldn’t get the prince out of his mind.

Those long, endless legs and sculptured features, the deep furrow of his eyebrows and his lips pressed tightly together with its ends slightly downturned. No one should be allowed to be that attractive even when they’re so thoroughly pissed, Yunho thought.

He slows down as he approaches the surface, careful not to splash too much, and perches himself behind a rock by a lit window. The most soothing and lyrical voice floats past, accompanied by the gentle crash of the waves against the shore.

Yunho sways gently, unconsciously, as if hypnotised. Even the King’s courtesans cannot measure up to this, Yunho bemuses. Unknowingly, his tail splashes along to the song, and he hums quietly along, every fibre of his body wishing to be part of the prince’s harmony.

Suddenly, the voice stops, snapping Yunho out of his reverie. He hears footsteps, and quickly slides back into the water.

He squints from below the surface, seeing a familiar silhouette at the window. Though only his outline could be seen, Yunho can almost see how pissed the prince is from the aggressive way he juts his head out of the window and snaps his head left and right, trying to find whatever or whoever it is in the absolute darkness.

Yunho imagines how his brows crease from frustration, lips pouting and nose crinkling from the lack of sight gifted by the blanket of the night. He thinks of how his lips will part in confusion, big doe eyes fluttering, as the silhouette retreats back into the building a little less confidently than when it first appeared, closing the window behind it.

Feeling a little more daring, Yunho resurfaces again and decides to sit atop a rock, resting his weight on his palms. He faces the sea and away from the direction of the wind.

Soon enough, the same lilting voice colours the wind once more, though a little muted by the glass of the windows. Yunho finds himself humming along once more, body swaying gently to the melody. He closes his eyes and thinks of the prince, thinks of how expressive his face and movements are, thinks of how each of his features would tense or relax when he’s frowning, when he’s smiling.

Yunho doesn’t think about the lovestruck smile that he can’t seem to wipe off his face.

* * *

 

Yunho finds out that the prince loves sleeping in till late morning, so he deems it safe to go up just before dawn breaks, and leave when the sun just leaves the horizon.

He forces a proud smile and wise nods when sharing this discovery while desperately trying to not think of how he accidentally fell asleep on the beach while listening to the prince sing the previous night, his upper body in the water and tail sticking out on the sand.

Heechul scowls.

Yunho guesses he failed then.

The lobster spends the next hour snapping his claws threateningly and shouting incoherently while chasing the merman through town.

* * *

 

Yunho spent a good week worth of mornings constantly on alert in case the prince suddenly decides to wake up early. He was thus really proud and sure of himself when the prince consistently wakes up just before the sun hits the centre of the sky.

He alternates mornings between practicing dancing and singing, and even tries to put them both together. He gets a little braver and a little louder day by day, not that he notices.

Well, not the latter anyway.

But one morning, the prince wakes up early.

And Yunho, bless his heart, is once again too busy going through his morning repertoire to notice.

He is practicing the song that he heard the prince sing from the night before, which happened to play on the radio. He eagerly turns the volume up when he recognises it, and enthusiastically sings his heart out with a little more (or a lot more) intensity than necessary for a vocal session at six in the morning.  

Even when Ho Soonie moves on to the next song, Yunho decides to continue practice the same one.

“I want to be able to sing with the prince one day,” He thinks before he can stop himself. Before a small voice at the back of his mind adds bitterly, “Even if it means being separated by a window and the dark of the night.”

Yunho takes the regret and sadness, which has been growing day by day, and tucks it back into the depths of his heart because he knows that he can never let them show.

Not to Heechul, not to anyone.

He decides to take a swim. He splashes back first into the water, and pushes away from the shore with his tail. Spreading his arms out at his sides, he leisurely uses his tail to paddle up and down, stares right up to the sky, the prince’s song still on his lips. Only this time, it’s softer, gentler, like a dream.

Yunho allows himself to imagine, for once, what it would be like to meet the prince and fall in love.

His daydream is cut short however, by movement he spots in his peripheral vision.

* * *

 

Changmin, unfortunately, had to drag himself out of bed before the sky turned bright that morning for some useless monthly general meeting that mostly consisted of two of his uncles arguing over who had the bigger dick.

Ok, they actually argue over whether the more money should be pumped into the heavy industries or to the manufacturing industries but Changmin couldn’t care less so they can argue about their dicks and Changmin would still feel like facepalming the table to catch up on his sleep.

Don’t get him wrong, it’s not as if he doesn’t care about the economy or that he was just some airhead prince. Far from it, Changmin is well-read and well-informed about all facets of current affairs and he had already proposed what he considered, and still considers, the best solution weeks ago. His uncles recognise that, and have been attempting to paraphrase his suggestion and poke non-existent holes in each other’s arguments, just so that eventually one of them can claim credit for the solution he offered.

Changmin hates power play and politics.

And the castle is full of it, which is partially why he decided to move out, to some secluded area far from people and society. Because no people, means no complex intentions riddled with selfishness and hypocrisy.

Well, and also because he’s tired of people waking him up before the sun can even squint past the horizon to make him listen to the villagers’ woes like “what should I do if my dog eats my neighbours’ cow’s faeces, sir?”

He truly loves his people, but what the fuck is he supposed to say to that.

He hasn’t been waking up at these kind of hours for almost ten days, and it’s frighteningly fast how bodies adjust to later waking times. He zombies around the house, fumbling around and washing up, when he thinks he hears someone singing, too brilliantly for the morning. His left eye crumples in annoyance.

His eyes springs wide open when he recognises the song as what he sang from the last few nights.

Changmin really wants to think that it is just a coincidence, but he has been feeling the presence of someone else for the past few nights, though he has been adamantly ignoring it. And the song choice, it just, it _can’t_ be a coincidence.

He really dislikes the idea of having a stalker right outside his house just waiting for him, and no one else besides the two of him in a five fucking hundred metre radius.

So much for being away from people.

Now he’s only near a potential murderer.

Great.

The singing stops and Changmin’s blood freezes, the only noise being the hum of the radio outside. Goddammit he knew he should have got rid of the radio when he first saw it. At least he could piss the stalker off and get some petty revenge before he barges in and cuts Changmin up or something.

In his heart, he feels the familiar feeling of hatred, for the entire fucking world to be exact.

He would rather say “it doesn’t matter if your dog eats cow excrement, my dear, don’t worry about it” a thousand more times than to die in some brutal fashion here, where no one will find him.

He needs to protect himself.

He quickly puts on his fluffy slippers (at least let him die in comfort if not style ok) and picks out the ugliest vase and raises it, ready. He stands by the door with his hand on the knob, takes a deep breath, and swings it open.

* * *

 

Changmin looked everywhere on the beach, but he doesn’t see anyone in sight.

Odd, he thinks. He isn’t an overtly religious man but he’s starting to get goosebumps.

Then he hears, soft humming… From the sea? He quickly turns his head to the vast expanse of water and squints.

There he is, Changmin thinks, victorious. Swimming leisurely and completely unaware of Changmin’s presence. He considers his options and decides that he will not need to die after all, he can just surprise the stalker, whack him unconscious, and call for backup.

If all goes well, he may be able to skip the general meeting too.

He ducks quick, behind a rock, and peaks out.

“Fuck,” he breathes, it was as if the stalker just dissolved in the water. “Where did he go?”

Keeping calm, he keeps an eye out for the shoreline, waiting for the stalker to resurface in case he saw Changmin and decided to spring a surprise attack from behind.

Changmin waits and waits, till he nearly dozes off, but he’s pretty sure the stalker hasn’t resurfaced. He feels worry bubble up and jumps to his feet, squinting and trying his best to spot the man in the water, on the beach, anywhere. He licks his lips and jumps on the spot.

He _really_ hates everyone.

“I’m going to regret this,” he thinks as he strips off his bathrobe and slippers, leaving only his boxers on. He takes a deep breath and tampers down the last fission of hesitation.

He wades into the water.

That asshole better not drown near my newly built villa, he thinks. Or I’ll revive him, then kill him again.

Changmin tries his absolute hardest to look, but he can’t, the salt water viciously stinging his eyes and the paper cut he has on his thumb. He ends up flailing, trying to keep afloat while wiping water off his face but to no avail. He blinks too many times and his eyes hurt too much to be kept open, and he feels himself sinking, legs failing to keep his head above the water with the strong waves threatening to bury him in.

Just when panic forces him to give up the search and return to shore, he feels it, a cramp in his left calf.

“Fuck”, was the last word he managed to breathe out before the rest of the sentence evaporates into a series of bubbles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that was... less interaction than i wanted in this chapter but i got too caught up in writing yunho pining for changmin and changmin complaining about everyone haha ;; there'll be more next chapter i promise.
> 
> hope yall liked it and thanks for the people who left comments and kudos in the previous chapter, they made me really happy ^^


	3. Chapter 3

Yunho never breaks his promises.

Usually.

Look, he couldn’t possibly have stood by and watched the prince drown alright. Imagine the royal land family’s reaction if they found out one of their own drowned and that one of the merpeople just floated by doing nothing but watch. It would indisputably cause an uproar.

Right, Yunho nods, satisfied, that argument seems convincing enough. He’ll just need to relay it word for word to Heechul later if the lobster somehow manages to read his mind again and finds out about this incident.

Now that that’s out of the way, Yunho looks down at Changmin lying on the sand, and starts to feel the anxiousness flood in because he’s not too sure what he’s supposed to do.

It’s not as if he had drowned before.

Changmin was struggling in the water, a little like how fish would look like out of water, and eventually sinking while hugging his leg, eyes flashing with anger and mouth violently contorting into what seemed like the words “I fucking hate everyone”.

Yunho immediately swam up to him, held him by the waist, and hoisted him back up to the surface and towards the shore. He was pretty sure he managed to save the prince before he drank too much of the water, but clearly he was wrong because after coughing for a bit, the prince seemed to have fell into unconsciousness.

With Changmin still lying dead still in front of him, the merman tries thinking back to the sights that he has encountered on the beach during his spying sessions. He had once seen a little humans splash some seawater on an unmoving man who was lying still on the sand, and he immediately jumped up and started shouting some choice words that Yunho did not know existed and was quite frankly rather annoyed that the man used such foul language on children, and they were children who saved his life no less.

Mustering up his conviction, he pulls Changmin’s head nearer to the water, raised his tail and swept it across the water, hard. A heavy amount of water is sent crashing onto the prince’s face.

Changmin reflexively frowns and coughs, and Yunho thinks he saw the fluttering of his eyelids, then wonders whether he blinked and mistook the movement of his own eyelids as the prince’s because his eyes were already shut tight before Yunho could even so much as part his lips to acknowledge the movement.

Yunho doesn’t notice subtle wrinkling of the man’s nose bridge.

Nor does sense the irritation radiating from the supposedly unconscious man.

The lack of response feeds into Yunho’s determination, he is convinced that he needs to save him no matter what. So he presses his lips together so hard they form a pout, and shuts his eyes tight as if it helps him recall his memories a little better.

“Ahha!” Yunho shouts, triumphant. “I’m going to save you Your Royal Human Highness, I’m sure this will work!”

Changmin’s eyebrow twitches.

Yunho, determined and fired up, channels all his enthusiasm into his lips as he purses them, takes a deep breath through his nose, and just as he remembers seeing with his perfect eyesight, not-so-gently places them against the prince’s.

_That's not how C-fucking-PR works._

Changmin thinks, as his eyes spring wide open.

____________

Immediately, a multitude of thoughts flood his head, one after another.

I thought he was an idiot.

Why didn’t he just leave when I played dead?

Did he just take advantage of me?!

Oh wait playing dead was for bears.

What the fuck is “your royal human highness”?

He turns his head to Yunho, mind still in a scramble and he sees, a smile so bright the sun behind seems to dim in comparison, a thick strong neck, dark perky nipples settled on the fullest chest he has ever seen on a man, a flat expanse of skin with light linear indentations showing off the abdominal muscles, and a bright, shiny, rainbow-fucking-coloured tail.

He went from enraged, to turned on, to flat out confused though still with slight arousal, and the number of questions he has can’t seem to stop multiplying. He tries to calms down, puts himself together like the eloquent man he has always been known to be, and opens his mouth.

“Blergghh?!”

He tried.

But the fish man stops smiling, confusion and hurt flooding his eyes, and suddenly the sun behind him seems too bright and too blinding, so he squints and bows his head with a groan.

Totally not because he’s mentally berating himself for being an insensitive idiot.

Yunho, misinterpreting the prince’s reaction as anger and contempt, starts slowly pushing himself back into the water, shoulders hunched and lips pouted. And Changmin swears he can almost see his hypothetical puppy ears flopping down.

“Wait!” Changmin scrambles, his mind still in shambles but he knew he couldn’t let the other leave, not like this.

Yunho waits, wary.

“No, I mean, I’m sorry,” Changmin wonders if he should just throw the mush he currently has for a brain into the sea. “I didn’t mean to offend you, I’m just, ‘your royal human highness’?”

His voice went embarrassingly high towards the end of that sentence and it wasn’t even what he was trying to say.

But the smile returns, and Changmin’s heart feels a tad bit warmer.

“I know you are,” Yunho spills, proud and excited about speaking with a real human. Wanting to show off his knowledge, he adds smugly, “I can tell from your legs.”

All the figurative marbles that Changmin has painstakingly gathered in the past minute are suddenly lost again. Confused was an understatement.

But thankfully, the man or fish or whatever oil spill induced freak of nature is apparently very talkative and speaks with almost zero coherency, jumping from one subject matter to another, and it doesn’t help that Changmin has absolutely no idea what each subject matter is even about. He bulldozes through the entire one-sided conversation, paying absolutely no heed to the prince’s silence, nor his widened eyes and gaping mouth, an expression one would have if they were in some sort of a trance.

Oh, and the saliva threatening to overflow from his lips.

Changmin knows he’s not paying attention anymore, at least not to what he’s hearing.

What he’s seeing, however.

In some dark little corner of his brain where a single gear still turns, he blames that stupid rainbow tail that is way too blinding for its own good for making him lose his sight or some shit because apparently his eyeballs are shooting signals nonstop at his brain and they are hijacking his usually high-functioning neurons so all he can think of is that the owner of said tail is apparently the most attractive person, fish, _anything_ , he has ever laid his eyes on.

Or maybe it’s some weird magic that the fish man carries.

It takes Yunho some time, though Changmin thought it was too soon, before he realises that the prince was just staring at him stupidly for the entire time.

Yunho blushes.

Changmin almost cries.

“So,” Yunho starts, awkward and still painfully aware of the attention. “I probably should have asked this first but, are you feeling alright?”

Oh right, Changmin thought, I almost drowned.

“Yeah, I’m… breathing… fine,” Changmin wonders where he can get a new brain. He scratches an imaginary itch at the back of his neck before mumbling, “Thanks for saving me.”

Yunho beams.

It is then Changmin realises, glad that his brain is finally making sense, that he isn’t a person or a fish or some mutated monster.

He’s probably the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short one compared to the rest cos I'm kinda busy and lacking inspiration lately D:< /throws angry penguins at myself/


	4. Chapter 4

“Your highness, is everything alright?”

All Changmin can think of is “it’s your royal human highness, you imbecile”.

Unfortunately, before Changmin could get his sun’s number (or whatever communication device he uses from… wherever he came from), the palace guards his father sent arrived, most likely to get his ass to the meeting. Upon hearing the heavy footfalls of the troop, the merman spared him a panicked glance before disappearing back into the waters.

Changmin is going to stab someone if they dare to even hint that he is sulking.

“I’m fine,” he barks out instead, careful to school his expression into one of nonchalance.

Or ire.

The head of the guards swallows visibly and puts an extra thirty degrees to his bow.

* * *

 

Changmin settles on the mat, guitar in hand.

Or at least tries to.

It has been two days since his meeting with his sun (yeah, he’s his now) and Changmin has yet to see a single shiny scale or even a mere ripple since then.

Changmin is disappointed, to say the least.

Just as he has been doing the past few nights, he sits on the edge of the porch of his villa and extends his feet out into the sand, feelings the sharp grains between his toes. With a guitar on his lap, he sings, hoping to attract his sun back again.

He initially pictured something out of romance films. Him, the male protagonist strumming serenades under the stars, swaying with the gentle breeze, and he, the male protagonist’s interest, because Changmin isn’t sure whether he can call it love quite yet, emerges from the water and joins in the harmony, wet abs and sexy hair and all.

But apparently, the world must hate Changmin because the breeze is more like a tornado, destroying his meticulously styled hair and turning back into the ball of curls that it originally is in the matter of minutes, and blowing sand into his eyes such that he has fits of vigorous blinking like some magnesium deficient patient every so often.

And quite frankly the night is so dark, the kraken can crawl out and sit at the edge of the sea and Changmin wouldn’t have known better.

The absolute worst part is that, the other character in his imagined scenario doesn’t even show up.

Not previously, not now.

Changmin packs up his guitar, pissed, and he takes it out on the zipper.

The zipper breaks.

Changmin is going to add “everything” to the list of things that he hates, next to “everyone”.

* * *

 

That night, Changmin dreams of his sun, just as he did in the previous nights.

But this time, the actual sun behind his is more glaring and brighter than usual.

He can’t see his sun’s face.

He wakes up panting, and he realises that he can no longer remember the slant of his sun’s eyes, the pout of his lips.

* * *

 

In the morning, he sprints down to the nearest music store and demands for an electric guitar, amplifier and mic with the loudest volume settings.

* * *

 

When Changmin’s private concert finally attracts an audience, it is not a he, but a _they._

The fieriest lobster he has ever seen alive just marched out of the water and towards Changmin’s direction, snapping his claws like some angry barber. It is followed soon after by something like the incarnate of Sadako, lugging himself around the dry sand by virtue of his arms at a frightening speed.

But Changmin is nothing if not brave and somewhat nonchalant, so he just takes like two steps back. Or five. Or twenty-six while screaming as if the fires of hell were licking at his heels.

The protagonist of The Ring finally catches up to the furious crustacean and enters the artificial glow of his porch, grabbing hold of the tip of its tail at an arm’s length, afraid of losing a nose to its vicious claws.

And oh, Sadako turns out to be another mythical creature, one he much prefers.

He stops flailing and running and screaming and assumes staring dumbly at the scene before him.

The fishman sends him an embarrassed smile before the lobster escapes his grip (although he probably isn’t trying very hard since he only used two fingers to hold the slippery and more importantly angry creature) and pounces on his’s face. Changmin blinks once and the lobster has basically already wrestled the fishman into the sea.

“Oh… kay…” Changmin starts, and pauses.

The coastline before him seems so quiet and undisturbed, it is as if whatever he has just seen is just a hallucination fed by his eagerness to see the fishman again.

He squints, questioning his sanity.

He pulls the lounge chair into the shivering wind and sits there, and waits.

* * *

 

Before Changmin freezes solid, his sun appears, carrying a small bag weaved out of broken ropes and torn plastic, and the most apologetic smile on his face, bottom lip slightly swollen from chewing out of nervousness.

Changmin is afraid his nose may start bleeding from the mere thoughts that those rosy lips incited in his traitorous brain.

And because Changmin’s hasn’t gotten a new brain since their last meeting, Yunho starts the conversation. Changmin learns that his sun is a merman, not a fishman, and that he has a name, that apparently doesn’t have the word “Changmin’s” or “your” in it. He feels rather miffed about it.

“My sun sounds way better,” Changmin thinks he thought but Yunho tilts his head in confusion and Changmin thinks he needs to get a new mouth too.

Desperate to change the topic of conversation, Changmin’s eyes searches, and points to the thing that attracts his attention the most.

“Oh yeah, I brought some stuff for you, your royal human highness!” Yunho announces excitedly. He probably thought that Changmin was pointing at the bag but he was actually pointing at the veins bulging from his arms because Changmin has a thing for veins, or arms, or Yunho, but his sun doesn’t need to know.

Yunho practically overturns the entire bag, letting the contents tumble out, and it’s a series of strange knick knacks that Changmin has never seen before, not even in the most diverse marketplace that the town has, and he’s pretty sure some of these things were, or are, alive.

Yunho looks at him with all the excitement of a ten-year-old hearing the sound of an ice cream truck, and Changmin tries to reciprocate.

Something that looks like a diseased acorn with leprosy squirts some dark liquid out.

Changmin hopes at least his eyes look like they’re sparkling and he experimentally angles his head higher to catch more light reflecting off his eyes.

Yunho’s eyes crinkle gleefully and Changmin almost fist pumps.  

Yunho spends hours and hours rambling about the various items in his collection and recounting all the memories that he had associated with said items. He makes Changmin touch them all (albeit reluctantly and not without going through fifty different expressions displaying varying levels of fear and disgust). The most unfortunate moment is when Yunho lifts the leper acorn and declares that it’s his favourite snack with flourish before shoving it in front of Changmin’s face asking him to try.

It is then Changmin admits to himself that his attraction to Yunho must have been more than something simple or passing because he actually, _actually,_ considers eating it.

Subsequently, he realises he is in deep shit when his soul feels like dying as the vilest taste floods his mouth but even then he would still choose to shove the entire thing into his mouth because Yunho leaning towards him, excitedly bouncing up and down while asking him if he liked it is the cutest thing he has ever seen.

So he did.

He feels bile rising up but swallows it down because he thinks the merman is about to kiss him.

Yunho grabs his shoulders and leans in, praising Changmin like _he’s_ the fucking ten-year-old, Changmin thinks grudgingly as he tries to tamp down the feeling of pride welling up in his chest at each “good job” and “you’re amazing Changminnie” that was falling out of Yunho’s mouth like rapidfire.

Yunho tilts his head, but his angle is all wrong and way off and Changmin belatedly realises that Yunho is just going in for a hug and what the fuck Changmin did not eat that disgusting shit for a _hug_ so he shoves his arms between them before Yunho can rest his head on his shoulders, his hands latching onto the merman’s shoulders and pulling, so that his lips can latch onto his.

If that shit sack was a nightmare of an appetiser, having Yunho’s lips as a main course totally makes up for it. His lips taste sweet and soft, with just a hint of salt from the sea. Changmin thinks about how much sweeter it’ll be inside of Yunho’s mouth and growls, he slides a hand behind Yunho’s neck to pull him closer. It doesn’t take much coaxing for Yunho to open up because, as he tells Heechul later before the lobster buries his head in his claws and vows to disown him, Changminnie’s mouth and breath bore remnants of his favourite food and since he was hungry and Changmin didn’t even offer to share, it was completely natural and reasonable for him to react that way right?

(Heechul almost throws a shark at him.

Thank goodness the shark sensed danger and swam away first.)

When they break apart, breathless, their foreheads still resting against each other’s, Changmin feels the goofiest smile touching his lips in response to Yunho’s blinding one, and realises that he has not felt this at peace in so long.

Yunho squeezes his eyes shut and leans in again, rubbing his forehead against Changmin’s while aggressively giving him Eskimo kisses.

“What’s this?” Changmin can’t help but giggle at Yunho’s enthusiasm.

At this point Changmin has already resigned himself to the fact that he’s head over heels for the merman and is near to embracing the possibility of him having a fish fetish because, what the heck he’s giggling and he feels approximately zero shame about it.

Yunho stops abruptly, eyes gleaming with satisfaction and his cheeks flushed deep pink. A flash of white peeks out from his lips as he gnaws his bottom lip, deliberating on his response.

He looked so delicious that Changmin almost went in again. But Yunho speaks out first.

“It’s a thing my people do,” Yunho starts, his voice soft and breathy. From the flutter of his eyelids to the increased rise and fall of his chest, every part of his body betrays the overwhelming excitement that floods his heart.

Yunho takes a deep breath before continuing, his smile stretching impossibly wider and eyes crinkling.

“When we fall in love.”       


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well i... sweats... finally updated. i hope there's still people here /hears my voice echo back in the void/
> 
> anyway, happy homin day! this fic just gets... longer and longer.

After much begging from Yunho, Changmin agrees to show him his house.

Though in truth, Yunho only had to ask twice. The first time, Changmin didn’t hear because he was too busy conjuring ways to hear Yunho’s breathy little whines again. The second time, Changmin said yes before his brain computed anything because that thing is always broken when it comes to the merman anyway.

But yes, Changmin has his pride to keep. So if anyone asks, Yunho bugged him about it before he reluctantly agreed to it.

However, Yunho cannot be out of the water for too long, and Changmin isn’t sure he can carry Yunho bridal style all over the huge villa without embarrassing himself. Struck by a brilliant idea, the prince runs down to the nearest hardware store and gets a drill and a set of wheels.

He spends an entire afternoon, cancels on dinner with his uncle and nearly loses two fingers, but by the time Yunho comes up again that evening, he is able to present his bathtub with newly attached wheels with flourish.

Changmin lifts Yunho and tries to mask his struggle the best he can, eager to show off the body he had painstakingly been maintaining, but the merman can’t seem to stay still, kicking his tail in excitement and cheering him on with way too much enthusiasm that Changmin loses his balance and falls over.

At least Yunho ended up in the tub.

At least no one got hurt.

At least Changmin has enough self-control not to lick the abs that he faceplanted into.

Well, not really, but in Changmin’s defense, he tried.

When he snaps back to reality and realises what his traitorous tongue has done, his lungs kind of stops functioning and his heart is intent on beating the hell out of his eardrums. Everything moves in slow motion as he shifts his gaze up a little by little, mentally whispering apologies to all the gods out there that he had previously denounced and praying that Yunho did not feel that.

The merman’s face is beet red.

“Well!” Changmin announces loudly as he scrambles clumsily to his feet, tripping over his feet at least twice but it’s all fine as he keeps his gaze to the sky, his brain sending up promises of sacrificial offerings, those abs safely out of his line of sight.

“Let’s go in, shall we?” He shouts again, trying in vain to use the sound waves to wipe Yunho’s memory.

The merman stays quiet, his head lowered and hands politely folded on his stomach.

______

It gets a bit better after some time, after Yunho expresses genuine interest in all the “dry human things” around the house and Changmin’s voice returns to the normal volume. But the awkwardness is still present, like an elephant in the room.

So when Changmin finally gives up on the gods and denounces them once more, he faces the elephant right on and braces himself.

“About just now… I’m sorry. It was abrupt and it was wrong and…”

“No no, don’t be,” Yunho cuts in, desperately fighting the blush rising up his cheeks, “It was okay. I mean, I was okay with it.”

“Oh.”

Changmin wonders why the fuck is the elephant still there.

“It’s just… I um, I always have this feeling, I mean sometimes, when I'm with you,” Yunho starts, his gaze fixed on his own hands, twiddling his thumbs.

“What kind of feeling?”

“It’s a…” Yunho stalls again, fidgeting and looking at everywhere but at Changmin. He continues in a hasty whisper, “An embarrassing feeling.”

“Embarrassing?”

“… Indecent.”

And I thought he couldn’t be any more adorable, Changmin thinks, but Yunho with his cheeks painted pink, eyes wide and lips pouted, all shy and flustered from having dirty thoughts does all sorts of things to his heart.

And for his dick.

“Yunho-ah,” The words tumble from his mouth as he leans forward reaching for his hand, trying to hide his reaction. It seems that all his body parts have been betraying him for Yunho since the first day, and he can’t even say that he feels unhappy about it. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We’re adults and that kind of reaction is completely normal. If it helps, I have indecent thoughts about you too?”

The words tumbled way too fast.

If the elephant won’t get the fuck out can he at least set the room on fire?

Or set himself on fire.

“WhaT I MEANT IS,” His word vomit starts up again, his voice getting exponentially louder. “What I meant is, it’s completely normal, Yunho-ah. Don’t think too much about it ok?”

What he means is to please not to think about what an idiot he is.

“Changmin, you don’t understand, we aren’t supposed to have these kinds of feelings,” Yunho blabbers, apparently equally flustered and somewhat panicked. “It’s weird and foreign and… It’s just weird. I don’t understand what they are.”

Now Changmin’s brain is the one that’s stalling.

“You’ve never felt horny?”

“I don’t have horns?”

He takes a breath and just, stares. He can’t believe he has to explain what sexual desire is. How the heck does he explain that?

It’s how I feel when you come out of the water with your wet abs and hair slicked back?

It’s when my dick kind of stands up when I kiss you all over the beach?

He can’t say any of those.

“It’s the feeling you have when you want to have sex with someone.”

Yunho breathes, somewhat understa-

“Like how I feel when I’m with you.”

Changmin is denouncing himself.

He’s moving deep into a forest on a mountain and he’ll never go near a water body ever again he doesn’t need water anyway-

“So does that mean I want to have sex with you?” Yunho asks, head tilted and brows furrowed.

Changmin isn’t sure whether he should feel offended.

“…Maybe?”

Yunho shakes his head, unconvinced, and Changmin's ego is kind of just, lying on the floor all bloody.

“I don’t think we are biologically capable of having babies though?”

“We can have sex even if we don’t want to have babies?”

“Then what’s the point?”

The two of them stare at each other, lost and dumbfounded and wondering if the other person is crazy. It took a bit of back and forth, but Changmin eventually learns that merpeople do not, in fact, have sex to feel good or have fun or to express love, and Yunho learns that humans engage in fertilisation in a very different and, from the sound of it, very painful way.

“A mermaid releases eggs through her hole, and a merman releases his sperm onto the eggs through,” Yunho points to the slit at the lower end of his tail, “this hole.”

“Oh,” Changmin says, blinking fast but unable to look away from the slit from his tail.

Yunho swings his tail up, scandalised, accidentally sending a big splash to Changmin’s face, and wraps his hands around his tail protectively.

“There’s absolutely no way anything is going in there.”

“I,” Changmin sputters, “I wasn’t thinking about _that_!”

Grumpy, Yunho turns his head away, “Lies.”

“No, I,” Okay yeah, Changmin wants to make love with Yunho under the stars and make Yunho feel amazing and make him squirm in pleasure and all that sappy nonsense but, “I would never want to hurt you in any way, or make you do things you don’t want.”

Also now that the biological difference between them literally just ruined his favourite silk shirt, he wonders how the heck did he manage to factor something as obvious as that out when he started pursuing this relationship.

Then he thinks back to Yunho’s brilliant smiles and adorable curiosity about humans and the “royal land family” and all the fuzzy and warm feelings that he got simply because Yunho was _there,_ and he realises that he has never stood a chance.

This relationship with Yunho isn’t something he can put on a weighing scale to measure the pros and cons of, it’s something that is just, part of his life, and it’s something for him to figure out how to make him stay with him for the rest of forever.

“There are tons of other things we can do anyway,” Changmin smirks, cupping his cheek and leaning in. He gives him a onceover and Yunho worries his lip and fidgets at the scrutiny he’s put under, feeling Changmin’s gaze burning his skin and hoping he doesn’t hear his heart pounding against his chest.

“Do you want me to show you now?”

**Author's Note:**

> hmmm it's my first time in a long time posting a fic so... hope it was ok!! haha thanks for reading


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